I like watching cooking shows 'cause they are about, well.. food! Who doesn't like food?? If you're going to eat, eat good! Anyway, in this particular cooking show, she was making her version of carrot-pineapple cake and I just about jumped off the couch and licked the TV, it looked that good!! For days afterwards, I was dreaming of carrot cake and remarking to Hubby how it had been awhile since I made carrot cake. I got him craving for carrot cake too! Finally, a couple of days ago, I made my version of carrot cake. Pretty much followed the Better Homes and Gardens recipe but I like to add a cup of raisins in my cake. Carrot cake without raisins just isn't worth eating. I am not a frosting fanatic, so I only made a little bit of cream cheese frosting and smoothed it on thinly-- I want to taste the cake not drown it! Too good for words and I have been sneaking bites here and there when the girls aren't looking!
I have been working little by little on the quilted centerpiece placemat for my MIL. I made the edging and pinned it on, and now comes the tedious part of sewing it on by hand. Definetely something I want to do after the kids go to sleep. Here it is, almost finished:
Now that I am looking at it from this point of view, it really looks busy, but it doesn't look so busy when I have it in front of me. Well, I know MIL will like it, and Hubby likes it too, so I'll forge ahead and finish the trimming tonight.

Woke up this morning to snow!! First thing that came to mind was that there was enough snow falling to make snow ice cream again!! I quickly set out two big bowls to catch the snow and looks like there's plenty for dessert tonight! yum!

Hope your day was just as delicious as mine!

Field trip! (sort of)

We sold enough items on eBay to make a trip to Wal-mart yesterday to stock up on some much needed pantry items. The dry cat food was down to the last scrape of the barrel, 3 cans of wet cat food and zero litter. We also had no meat for ourselves and as much as I prefer to buy the organic, free-range beef from the ranch down the road, we simply can't afford it at this point in time. So we bought some ground beef and chicken breasts in the big family pack sizes. I must have been high on Wal-mart fumes because I totally forgot about getting more bubble envelopes for mailing, so I had to venture out into our little town today.

With limited funds, it is very rare for us to make unscheduled trips now. We used to go for drives to nowhere in particular, just to look at the pretty mountain scenery and stop at the little antique shops we come across here and there. Now, the only one that goes anywhere is Hubby for interviews or job applications and if he happens to go into the Big town, I'll ask him to pick up this or that. I only venture out once a week to the food store in our little town and I am starting to feel a little cooped up. So are the girls.

It was nice to have all of us go out to Wal-mart yesterday and it felt like a field trip! The girls were excited to ride in the van and get out for a bit. We used to always go to Wendy's for lunch when we had a big shopping trip in the Big town and the girls expected to go there yesterday. Instead, I ran into the store for a loaf of bread, deli ham, chips and some sodas and we had an impromtu picnic in the car before heading into Wal-mart on hungry bellies.

Here's how Middle greeted me this morning when I was busy working in the office. She got into Oldest's purse where she kept her lip gloss and slathered it on! Too cute and then she made me laugh by puckering up and making kissy faces.

I managed to do some sewing today. Next weekend we are celebrating my MIL's birthday / 45th wedding anniversary and I wanted to make something to give. I have a stash of fabrics and decided to make sort of a centerpiece placemat, for lack of a better term. My MIL, the sweetheart, is such a girly girl and has decorated their house with lots of flowery fabrics so I chose flowery fabrics as well. It's my first attempt at quilting and going pretty good. I have it all pieced and I sewed through the batting layer and the back layer and now I need to trim and then do a border. I'll take a pix of the finished project when I'm done.

Pregnancy Update

Let's have a little pregnancy update now.

Let's see, my due date is June 28th, so that leaves roughly less than 5 months to go. That means I am more than 4 months pregnant and I am starting to show. Actually, I started to show a month ago, I think that has something to do with this being baby #4 and my body already accustomed to being stretched out to accomodate a baby.

I can still wear my regular clothes, though they are starting to feel a little snug around the belly now. I still have my maternity clothes from Youngest, though I was never the type to buy a whole wardrobe for less than 9 months of wear, and only have a couple of tops and pants that I rotate. I will need to buy a couple of new maternity / nursing bras, though. They are so damn comfortable that I wore them until they were threadbare!

My varicose veins have come back with a venagance! This is the reason why I don't wear shorts when I am pregnant out in public. I have heard that varicose veins can hurt. Fortunately, mine don't hurt, but they do hurt my eyes to look at-- ugh!

Plus! There are other places varicose veins can pop up! Bet you didn't know that did you? They can come in the guise of the dreaded hemorrhoids!! Ohhh! Now that's fun! Did you also know that when it comes time for labor and you are pushing the baby out of your uterus and squeezing that watermelon-sized head out of that tiny little hole, you can also inadvertently squeeze out your hemorrhoid from your other tiny hole? I distinctly remember after having Oldest and being cleaned up by the Doctor, he stuck his finger up my other hole to push in the vein I pushed out. I was too focused on the brand new baby at the time to say anything, but I asked about it later and this is the reason I know.

On the brighter side of things, I have yet to gain any weight, so I am happy about that, and hope at the most, I only gain 10-15 pounds total. Keep in mind that I haven't really lost the baby weight (can I still call it baby weight if the baby is now 2 years old??) from the last time and I had only just lost 10 pounds when I found out I was pregnant again.

I also don't have any heartburn issues like I did with Oldest, or weird food cravings, or a highly developed sense of smell like I did with Youngest. That highly developed sense of smell kept me out of the garage and the office because I couldn't stand the way they smelled. I also craved lots of coke with Youngest and had to force myself to limit one can of coke a day, after checking with the Doc that it was fine as long as I drank plenty of water before and after ( I did).

I DO have tender boobies, though. That's another unfortunate side effect of pregnancy. Your body is preparing your boobies to become milk factories and they are growing and changing and while it does all that, your kids are constantly bumping into them, the cat wants to knead them while she sleeps on your belly and the husband wants to fondle them. Too much attention on the boobies make you want to scream and slap some sort of security perimeter around them to keep kids, cats and husband away!

Oh! Have I mentioned hair??? Yes, people, a pregnant woman's hair also changes. The increase of hormonal production causes the hair to fall out! While people normally lose about 100 hairs a day, it seems like with pregnancy, it increases to 1,000!! I am a walking, talking shedding hair factory!! How can I have any hair left on my head?!? In the shower, when I wake, during the day, I find long, blond strands of hair everywhere! On the other hand, my hair looks nice and shiny and healthy, another side effect of pregnancy.

And that glow? Yep, I have it. Which is why hubby constantly keeps reaching for the boobies! Need I remind him that's how I got into this position in the first place????

Out of the mouths of 5 year olds...

Strange weather we've been having these past couple of days.. The temperature actually reached 70 outside!! It all started on Sunday and Monday with the temperature hitting 60, then Tuesday it hit 65 and finally, today at 70. I'm not complaining though, because that was 4 days of not using the wood stove. 4 days of preserving our precious wood pile and not having to worry about running out of wood. 4 days of open windows and fresh air running through the house.Sunday we spent outdoors, Hubby splitting wood with his trusty axe, and us girls picking up fallen branches off the ground and onto the fire pit. When the wood in the fire pit is high enough, we'll have a bonfire and toast some marshmallows! yum! Monday was a busy day indoors, then Tuesday I tried to shoo the girls outside and while Youngest happily grabbed her shoes and coat and shoved them at me to put them on her, Oldest and Middle totally moaned and groaned about it. When I finally managed to shove them out the door, it started to rain 5 minutes later. Oldest came back in and said, "See! I told you I didn't want to go outside!" and plopped back on the floor in the living room. Geez! You'd think I made them go into a dungeon or something!

Hubby went a few towns over tonight to take a test for government jobs. Apparently if you want to work for the government, you need to take some tests. They only do the testing one day a month and it was at 5 o'clock in the evening. So off he went and since it was just me and the girls for dinner, I told them we were going to have just macaroni and cheese, nothing else. They love mac and cheese, so no complaints there. Before dinner, I was working on putting stuff on eBay and the girls were playing in the room where we keep our "stock", our stuff we sell on eBay. I went in to check on them and discovered Oldest had opened a few packages of cars. I got mad and reminded her that she wasn't supposed to open anything and that when daddy got home, she'd have to tell him what she did.

I tried to explain to her that people like to buy things that are still in the original packaging and pay more for something still in the box instead of something already loose. Loose cars get banged up and scratched paint and broken parts. I told her that daddy hasn't worked in a long time and we need to make money by selling things on the computer so we can pay our bills and have food in our tummies. I put it in terms that I thought she would understand and it looked like it was getting through to her and then Oldest said this: "Is that why we are only eating macaroni and cheese tonight?"

Dinner tonight was tuna fish sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and 2 chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Hi, My Name Is..

Jenny and I am a Parrothead.

Ok, I know that sounds strange coming from someone that can't hear, but I do like music and up until now, I used to make fun of those so-called Parrotheads, the Jimmy Buffet music lovers. How silly, I thought they were, to dress up in tropical shirts and put fake parrots on their shoulders and drink margaritas and sing along to the music. I've even seen cars covered with "Margaritaville" bumper stickers as they proudly proclaimed their adoration for Jimmy Buffet. I would scoff and shake my heads at them.

Being Deaf, you wouldn't think that deaf people listened to music, while in fact, I know a lot of deaf people that like music. They usually go for bass-heavy stuff, where they can really hear the beat and feel the vibrations and crank the volume up. Today, I don't hear like I used to and once I take off my hearing aid, my world goes silent. In the car, I tune the radio to oldies stations because they play stuff I can recognize. I don't listen to any of the stations that play newer music because it all sounds like gibberish to me. With the older music stations, I'll recognize the distinctive beat to "Wild Thing" and start rocking out! Or something by the Beatles or Elvis will come on and I can sing along to the songs I am familiar with. Most of the time though, I recognize the music, but I have no idea who sings it or what the title of the song is, I just remember listening to it when I was younger and liking it. I can't hear the Dj announce the name of the artist or the title, so I go along listening to unknown songs. If Hubby is in the car with me, I'll ask, "Who sings that?" and I'll finally learn the identity of the song.

The other day, Hubby and I were hard at work, taking pictures of things to put up on eBay. He had the radio on and the stations he likes are classic rock or heavy metal. Don't get me started on heavy metal music-- with all the screaming and screeching guitar playing, I can't understand why it is called music, but obviously there is something I am not hearing to make it appeal to so many people. Anyway, a song came on that wound it's way around my head and smacked me awake and I instantly recognized it as a song I liked, but didn't know who sang it.

"Honey! Who sings this?!" I hollered at Hubby from across the room.

"It's "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet." he answered.

My mouth dropped. "No it isn't!" I said in disbelief.

"Yes, it is." Then he started singing the words and I could tell the words coming out of his mouth matched the sounds I was hearing. My heart dropped! I like Jimmy Buffet?! I had ALWAYS liked that particular song, but never knew who sang it, and now I wondered what other Jimmy Buffet songs I liked but didn't realize it? Then I thought to myself, well if the rest of his music sounds like "Margaritaville", then I can see why he has so many fans!

So now I admit to you: Hi, my name is Jenny and I am a Parrothead.

They're not the same...

All I know about children is from having my own and from babysitting when I was younger. I read the magazines and I've seen the talk shows and various documentaries, and I've watched the way other people behave with their kids, but really, you don't know kids until you have your own.

With Oldest, it was a whole new experience, because never in my babysitting jobs, did I have to care for a newborn. The youngest child I cared for was around a year old, and the rest of them were toddler-aged. I learned as I went, discovering there were different cries for different things, I learned her facial expressions and which ones meant she was pooping. I watched her observe and learn to do things on her own.

When Middle came along, I expected similarities. I knew they would have different personalities, I just expected the same learning curve. How wrong I was!! Middle was content to sit in her crib in the mornings, until someone came along to get her out. Oldest would rattle the gate of her crib and eventually learned to climb over to escape her caged bed.

Middle stubbornly held onto her bottle until at 2 years old, I confiscated them all and hid them, so she had no choice but to conform to a sippy cup, showing her obvious displeasure at using one. Oldest was happy to move onto regular cups just like Mommy and Daddy used.

While Oldest was somewhat easy to potty train, and she was out of night-time pull-ups for good by 3 years, Middle refused to relinquish her pull-ups and it took lots of coaxing and encouragement to get her to use her new underwear. Finally at 3 1/2 she was using the bathroom on her own and no longer wearing pull-ups.

When Youngest came along, I had lowered my expectations and figured that she would be somewhere in between the two older sisters. I am completely blown away by everything that Youngest has accomplished at the age of 2, and I just have to write it down for my own memory's sake.

She kicked the bottle habit before she was one year old, wanting to use a sippy cup just like her sisters did. She is almost completely potty trained, with the exception of her pooping. She has skipped over the pull-ups and has been wearing underwear for about a week now and runs to me, doing the pee-pee dance, singing "pee! pee!" and we rush over to the little potty to pee. Today, she has refused to use the little potty and wants to use the regular toilet. How cute it is to see her little butt balancing on the edge of the toilet seat so she doesn't fall in, her little hands gripping my arms for support.

When I cook, she drags the dining room chair over to help. And I do mean help! She says " 'tir! 'tir!" and tries to grab the spoon to stir whatever it is I am stirring. She names everything she sees on the counter-- knife, bowl, pan, oil, pepper, spoon, towel, 'nana, and more. She puts away the clean silverware and puts them in thier proper place in the drawers. She knows where I keep pretty much everything, as she follows me around most of the day and if I ask her to go and get something, she will go straight for it and bring it back.

Youngest talks in sentences and makes herself understood pretty clearly. In fact, I understand her better than I did Middle. Middle mumbled and made exaggerated mouth movements that made it nearly impossible for me to lip-read her and Hubby would shrug when I asked him what she said. Middle has only recently started talking clearly and has done a complete 180, from mumbled words to clearly spoken sentences. Youngest, on the other hand, talks and signs and lets me know exactly what she wants, and she does know what she wants!

I often wonder that this baby inside of me will be like. Will it be one that is reluctant to give up comforts and resistant to change the way Middle is? Will it rail against being "trapped" in the crib and protest gates in the doorways like Oldest? Will it watch the older kids and learn from them the way Youngest has? Or will it be different and develop on it's own pace, marching to the beat of it's own drummer?

I've definetely learned that I cannot have expectations for the way they develop, but I can have expectations for the way they should behave at a certain age-- learning that they need to pick up their own messes, help around the house, be respectful to each other, to name a few. Being a mother is a hard job, but is rewarding at the end of the day. I might be ready to pull my hair out on some days and start wondering if it is bed-time yet, but I can say that I wouldn't change a thing! I love watching them discover something new, seeing the awe on their faces and joy when they laugh. I love when they run to me and hug me. Each child is different and they all have different needs and I have learned how to react to Oldest and then change tactics for Middle and yet again for Youngest. I wouldn't change a thing!

Icy Wonderland

February has come in with a bang!! We woke this morning to an icy winter wonderland. Everything looks shiny and glossy and glassy and I just couldn't resist going outside with the camera. It was still raining and so I snuck outside while the girls were engrossed with a movie and Hubby could intercept them and distract them away from the windows if needed. If the girls saw me outside, they would run around in a frenzy, putting on pants and shoes and coats and wanting to come outside too!

It's beautiful out there, though I wouldn't want to be driving on twisty mountain roads if I didn't have to. We anticipated this weather and we have plenty of milk and food to tide us over.

This shot, above, is the view from the side/front yard. If I look out my bedroom window, this is what I see. Lots of dogwoods and maples, 2 pear trees and a peach tree. Then beyond the tree line is forest and trees of all description. I wanted to plant our garden here when we first moved, but this is our septic field, so that's out. If we ever got a pool, I think here would be good.

This shot is of an old picnic table the previous owners left behind. I thought it was neat to see with 2 rows of iclces hanging down. I was excited they left behind the picnic table, until I realized it was nearly rotted through and would probably fall to pieces with my weight if I sat down on it. Hubby snapped off a piece of the table easily and it is now where we scatter old bread and crackers for the birdies. The bird table is what we call it. We sort our table scraps into 3 piles: compost, cats and birds.

We feed the cats right outside our kitchen door, and place our leftover meats in their bowls. We can watch them eat from the sliding glass doors in the dining room. It amazes us when birds are brave enough to steal the scraps from the cats not 5 feet from where the cat is napping. We will have bluejays and chickadees that come around to scavenge and even fly away with bits of cat kibble! You think the baby birds will start to meow one day??

One of the outdoor cats has moved back in the house. Lucy, the only girl, looked so cold one day, I took pity on her and held the door open. She quickly took advantage of the open door and rushed inside. I put her into the litterbox, to remind her where the bathroom is, and showed her where the cat food bowls are. She has made herself at home ever since, and has claimed my blue rocking chair for her own. She makes no move to head back outdoors or stares out the windows longingly. She ended up outdoors when she started to use one of the girl's bed as her bathroom. Every day would be a pile of poo and pee and everyday I had to change the sheets and wash the blanket. It got so that I would shut the door, but the girls would forget to keep it closed. Finally I caught the culprit and tossed her outside. We let her back in after a week, and she resumed using the bed as her litterbox. Back out she went! She seemed to thrive outdoors and became an excellent mouser. Her coat grew nice and thick when the cold weather came around and she looked overall healthy and happy. Over a year later, she is back in the house again, and I am waiting for her to poop or pee elsewheres, but so far, so good. It's been 2 weeks since she came back in, and Hubby reports the extra cleaning he has to do in the litterbox. (there is an advantage to being pregnant and not having to clean the litter box!)

Tonight seems a good night for cooking dinner in the oven or the slow-cooker. Weather like this always makes me want to bake so I think that's what I'll be doing, too! Stay warm and cozy if there is snow or ice where you are!